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Monday, 30 December 2013

Frozen to the Edge of my Seat

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After loving Wreck-it-Ralph I had great hopes that Frozen
would match its standard. To my great disappointment...nah I’m kidding. Frozen
is a magical adventure with some great songs and beautiful animation that ranks
it up there with the Disney greats.

After a very Mulan-esque opening number I wondered how many
similarities this film might have to what has come before it, but straight away
after this first song, Frozen’s originality shines through. After an accident
as a young girl, Princess Elsa is forced to hide her powers to create and
control ice from the world, including her sister – Anna. When Anna
inadvertently exposes her powers in front of the whole kingdom, Elsa is forced
to flee the city, and retreats into an ice palace she builds atop a mountain.

The story follows many twists and turns, and is fuelled by
the great musical numbers and the wonderfully realized characters. Elsa and
Anna are your two princess sisters and the main stars of the film, but you also
have the ice-seller Kristoff, who helps Anna on her journey to find Elsa and
bring her back, as well as his reindeer sidekick Sven, who you’ll learn to
love. Finally we have Olaf, the clumsy, stupid, hilarious snowman that has been
brought to life by Elsa’s magic.

These characters are voiced superbly, with the sublimely
talented Idina Menzel providing the voice of Elsa. Kristen Bell and Jonathan
Goff do a great job as Anna and Kristoff but for me, Menzel was undoubtedly the
star of the show. One of her musical performances was breathtaking, and almost
had me wanting to stand up and applause.

The combination of performance and character development
really had me caring about the characters, and managed to convey a whole range
of emotions. A jolly opening quickly turns dark, then goes happy again, then
sad, then intense, then sad, then happy, etc etc. These contrasting moods
always have a reason for doing so, and don’t just abruptly and unexpectedly change.

Similarly the pace of the film has been done wonderfully,
finding just the right balance between intensity and calm. There also seems to
have been great care in inserting songs in just the right places so they don’t
feel intrusive to the plot, yet there isn’t a particularly long stretch without
one.

Which brings me to my next point. As well as being performed
beautifully, the songs have been masterfully written, telling a story as well
as entertaining an audience far more than just dialogue. They’re used in a
variety of ways, first to show the progression of time, as Anna grows from a
young girl to a young woman. They’re also used to show progression of pivotal
moments, but for the sake of spoilers I’ll leave you to see that for yourself.

My only criticism is an extremely minor one. As the bulk of
the plot centres around Anna and Kristoff, it is with them that most of the
songs lie. I personally would have wished for more of Menzel. She has one solo
song near the beginning that she performs brilliantly, but then doesn’t get
much time in the film until near the end. I feel that her talent has been
wasted in giving her only one big solo number to perform, as she could quite
easily have boasted her huge voice had she been given the opportunity.

Still, Frozen is a wonderfully uplifting movie that will
genuinely entertain a whole family. With some incredibly catchy songs
(seriously, I haven’t been able to get some of them out of my head since I
watched it), some astounding voice performances and a story that will take you
through a whole range of emotions, I highly recommend that you watch it, it’s
well worth the price of entry.